Letter: Real threat is still bin Laden

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005 | 9:04 a.m.

Eileen Schenck mentioned Ahmed Chalabi as a "recognized leader." He left Iraq in 1956, was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to 22 years for bank fraud, had a warrant issued for his arrest in Iraq for counterfeiting and was accused by the U.S. administration of telling Iran that the United States had broken their secret codes.

Chalabi is a smarmy, snake oil salesman with his own agenda. He returned to Iraq post-Saddam with $340,000 per month of U.S. taxpayer money, and he wants more.

Chalabi's agenda was endorsed over Mohamed El Baradei, Nobel Peace Prize winner. El Baradei actually conducted searches in Iraq and reported that there were no WMD left (even the ones we provided).

And Ambassador Joseph Wilson led an investigation to Niger and found that Saddam did not attempt to purchase weapons-grade nuclear material from Africa. The administration tried to discredit Wilson's report by "disclosing" that his wife is a CIA agent.

This administration is either too inept to figure it out or deliberately cultivated sources to justify their unilateral invasion of Iraq. Neither option is acceptable. Read the "9/11 Commission Report." The real threat was Osama bin Laden, not Saddam Hussein.

The target is 1,500 miles to the east of Iraq! That is the war I supported and still do. We have died for the right to speak out and are vested with the responsibility to hold administrations accountable for either their complete ineptitude or their deliberate misrepresentation to accomplish their agenda. Yes, there is a cancer. Unfortunately failed policies are causing its malignancy, not its remission.

Daniel Pia Las Vegas